Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a medical condition whereby an infant suddenly stops breathing, leading to the eventual death of the infant. Although the cause and initial symptoms of SIDS is not completely understood, it is felt that a child can be awakened from the SIDS condition.
Unfortunately, many currently available baby monitors are usually only provided with a microphone/transmitter and a receiver/speaker, enabling the parents to monitor baby noises such as crying, coughing, sneezing and sniffling. If the parents do not hear anything, they assume the baby is sleeping, and therefore do not need to check in on the child. Unfortunately, in some tragic situations, the absence of baby noises can be deadly to the child.
Consequently, other devices are known in the art which monitor breathing or baby motion to sound an alarm in the absence of such breathing or motion. U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,771, for example, discloses an apparatus for detecting the cessation of body movement by detecting the voltage produced by the movement of the charge on the body attributable to such movement. This is accomplished by a passive contactless conductive pad which is spaced from the body and in which a potential is induced by the movement of the body through the movement of the charge on the body. This potential is amplified and an alarm indication device responds to the amplified potential to produce an alarm when the output of the amplifier is below a predetermined value for a predetermined period of time. With this device, an alarm indication is provided to the parents which then necessitates a proactive role by the parents to start the artificial respiratory procedures necessary to induce continued rhythmic breathing.
Another movement monitor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,144 wherein the apparatus disclosed therein monitors motion and breathing by transmitting pressure signals to a pad by means of a strap secured around the person's body to facilitate forced transmission. The present or absence of breathing motion is monitored and logic circuitry can be actuated to provide an alarm should the output from the transducer sense no movement from the moving object. Again, however, the alarm necessitates a proactive role on the part of parents or third parties to try to stimulate breathing of the child upon receipt of the alarm.